Wednesday, August 23, 2017

As the mother of a nine year old and twelve year old, both
whom are addicted to their screens, I need to be ready to create yummy lunches
that help my kids stay focused and full all day long. Most school lunches are
filled with processed foods and sugars. I committed to my kids long ago that I
would pack them a healthy and delicious lunch, every day, and forgo the
unwholesome hot lunch at school for good.

But packing my kids' lunches everyday is a process. While my
kids aren't gluten-free, I am. This means everything I bake and prepare in my
kitchen has to be gluten-free. Like many gluten-free families, I struggle with
bread. I'm no dummy. I know gluten is an essential ingredient in giving bread
its doughy texture. Without it, it feels like you're eating sand.

However, gluten is 100% off limits to me because I have
celiac disease. I was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition in 2012. While it
was difficult to change my diet at first, I have embraced my role as a
gluten-free expert of sorts. Today, I blog at Good For You Gluten Free, where
I share my love of gluten-free eating, cooking, living and more!

There are a few store-bought brands of breads my kids will
tolerate, however, none are truly as good as the stuff the gluten-eating kids
are taking to school. Don't mistake tolerable for enjoyable. So this year, I
decided to experiment to see if I could come up with a delicious bread that was
gluten-free and actually had some redeeming nutritional qualities.

That's when I decided to study almond flour bread recipes
from other bloggers and cookbooks. Most of the recipes, ironically enough, are
very similar and contain only a small list of ingredients. Unlike traditional
bread recipes, however, recipes made with almond flour don't require yeast,
kneading or time to rise. They just require a combination of ingredients and a
push into the oven. Easy!

I took components of different almond flour recipes that I
liked in order to come up with one I liked best - and below you can find the
winning recipe.

The bread recipe is made with protein-rich blanched almond
flour from Honeyville, along with tapioca flour (which is gluten-free and
paleo-friendly) and ground flaxseeds, which add essential fats to the bread.
The tapioca flour doesn't have a lot of nutritional qualities (nothing to the
extent of the almond flour and ground flaxseeds), but it's job is to add good
texture to the bread, which is essential to getting my kids to eat it.

The bread looked amazing right out of the oven. A golden
brown crust and a soft, spongy inside. I couldn't wait to try it. After
snapping a few photos, I finally cut into the bread. It was soft but held
together well. I could tell it had a great texture, perfect for sandwiches or
morning toast.

I patted a slice of the almond flour bread with a little
butter and tasted it. Yep, this is good bread.

Slice this bread for sandwiches, or serve it topped with
your favorite spread or a pat of butter (or vegan buttery spread). This morning
I lightly toasted it with some butter in a pan over my stovetop. You can't go
wrong. It even tastes good naked (that is, the bread is naked, not you!).

I hope you enjoy this bread recipe as much as I did. It's
definitely a keeper recipe.

If you'd like to connect with me directly, please visit www.GoodForYouGlutenFree.com. I
have tons of gluten-free recipes on my site. Don't be shy, come over and say,
"Hi."

3 comments:

I just got the chance to make this tonight. It was delicious with some grass fed butter. With the tapioca starch I will want to limit our eating of this but I plan to make this once a week. It is the best almond flour bread I have tasted.